Scratchbuilt Tau Barracuda flier

Yup, you read that right! I've gone and smashed another conversion out..
I was thinking about how the Dark Angels seem a little bland to me in the new codex - don't get me wrong, I've got plans and all the models I need are built and painted so I'll be playing.... but in the meantime I began looking to my other armies.

Spurred on by finishing my Nids - I now have two forces that need work - Eldar and Tau.
My Eldar were an Iyanden army, but I got rid of my Wraithguard and am now left with a smattering of units that could be made into a decent Footdar army, or I could run a fast and thematic Jetbike army with a Seer Council and Baron/Hellion mob allies.. That'll look big pimpin'..but it's also not as cool as fucking huge rail guns!

Tau, well, I have all I need, plus can plug certain gaps with allies so they just need an airbrush camouflage overhaul. Plus, I do love the massive amount of shooting I can put out with Tau.

So I put together a list.
Something like this below, assume all Crisis Suits have Black Sun Filters and Drone Controllers with Gun Drones to eat bullets (obv this is where poss, assume all legal selections)

Commander - TL Missile Pod 

Bodyguard - TL Missile Pod 

3 x TL MP Suits

3 x TL MP Suits 

10 Fire Warriors 

10 Fire Warriors 

8 Fire Warriors 

Barracuda Air Superiority Fighter 

Piranha - Fusion, Disruption Pod

Piranha - Fusion, Disruption Pod

2 x Broadside

2 x Broadside

Space Marine Allies 

Libbie, Null Zone, Avenger

10 Sternguard, Drop Pod 

Sniper Scouts 

Aegis Defence Line - Quad Gun 

The only thing that is missing? The Barracuda - £73 from Forgeworld OR.... dig into an over large Tau bitz box with a huge volume of bits in it..

We're not going to focus on the list here.. more on how I built my bad boy flier.. it doesn't look like the one above from FW, but it does have the same kind of Tau lines. It is longer than a Hammerhead, but sleeker and is correctly armed so I think it'll do.

So we have an Ion Cannon up front, two Hammerhead engine blocks, Skyray missile 'wings' and burst cannon drone attachments. Simple start...but it certainly looks more X-Wing than Barracuda.

Thunderfire Cannon Scratch Build

Like many others out there, I refuse to buy the thunderfire cannon for £35 or whatever it is.. silly money for a  techmarine and a gun.

So I thought I would build one myself just from bits n bobs I have lying around from my random ass collection.. free whoot!

I had to get an image of what the Thunderfire is supposed to look like.. then I had to have an extensive search of my bits. This is what took the longest to be honest... I have a huge collection of random bits and finding Space Marine parts that suited as well as other non-Imperial bits.. I mainly raided a Empire Steam Tank, a spare Manticore kit, some random Marine tank bits.. Vendetta landing gears, all sorts.

It took a few minutes to think what I wanted it to look like, I like the idea of it being dropped into the action from space or low orbit from a thunderhawk.. that way, it wouldn't have to have tank tracks - the most important element that I could not source in my bits...and I'd be damned if I was paying anything at all for this!

My first steps were to put the TFC base platform together. This was a very simple platform, with just the 3 landing gears under a razorback hatch. This would give me the size to mount a pretty decent sized gun on, also a space to angel the gun already built in.

Once this was done, it was time to build the Cannon itself.. I toyed with putting the Cannons from the Empire Steam Tank together and adding a 3d cannon from the Nemesis Dreadknight Heavy Psilencer..but it just didn't look man enough for the job..

Then I found a set of Storm Eagle rockets I had left from my Mech IG army that I sold.. nice one.. trim the flights and noses from the missiles..glue together.. sweet.

Next stage was to provide some bulk to the TFC, and a way in which to elevate the barrel/cannon so that it looks like it could lob shells overhead. This was done with a spare Baal Pred ammo box from the TL Assault Cannons.. and the control panel from a Drop Pod. These, combined with a second Razorback weapons mount gave me the necessary elevation on the cannon and the mountings for the Steam Tank Cannons gave me the pieces that would hold the cannon in place.

Adding a few details to the rear of the Cannon covered the dodgy looking glue job at the back, a DA tome glued on the front gave it the mechanicus/DA monastic nonsense I was looking for.

The Cannon itself got some Baal Pred Sponson covers to give the Cannon itself some covering and armour plates. I did look for one of those targeting thing-ma-bobbies that goes on top of the TFC, but I couldn't find one amongst my scrap.. which to be honest, I was amazed at lol!

Then I think that was it.. pretty easy, looks pretty sweet and it cost absolutely nothing...pilfering bits from kits that I have no interest in using nor have the need.. IG for me are now reduced to just Infantry platoon plug ins as Allies and I have more BA mech than you can shake a stick at.. so a few odds n sods are really not useful.

You can of course see my scratch built Techmarine with full servo harness.. my guy has more practical tools for siege work than lifting equipment..lighting, drill, hammer.. and of course the TL Plasma and flamer..

I love it when a plan comes together! What do you guys think? Cracking little freebie or "needs some work Ven"? I'm pretty pleased, I save £30-odd and exert some creativity.. 

Building the Desert Lions - Part 3, Robots Great and Small (finally!)

Hi everyone, its been a while since my last hobby update.  I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say my hobby time has been severely limited, partly out of necessity and partly out of choice.  However, I recently found some gaming time at last, and this has inspired me to get building again!  I have at long last created some of the major units for my long term project - The Desert Lions Chapter.  Since most of you probably weren't born (warning: possible exaggeration) when I started this project, check out the links below for a recap.

http://sanguinesons.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/counts-as-purifiers-and-dreadknight.html
http://sanguinesons.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/building-desert-lions-part-1-some.html
http://sanguinesons.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/building-desert-lions-part-2-coteaz.html

Sisters of Battle .. meet... Band of Brothers!

The dirty word.

Count as.

Here be count as..

"..One army to rule them all! And in the Count As darkness bind them.. "

Sisters are gorgeous models.
Sisters are all metal.
Sisters are frakkin' expensive. (£)

Screw that. Instead, let's just play with space marines as Sisters..
Fluff justification required? No. Frak off..  oh ok then:

Fluff - during the Age of Blood (read your fluff) and crazy ass Vandire Gorge (or something) is head of both the Administorum and Ecclesiarchy (or something) he used an elite force of fanatical warriors to hunt down and slaughter anyone that opposed the word of the Emperor (or Vandire for that matter)..
After Sebastian Thor ended the Age of Blood, he outlawed all "men from bearing arms" in the Eccliasarchy..creating the Sisters Soriatorumumumim and ended the Band of Brothers.. but not before an elite force of crack commandos escaped from a maximum security imperial prison.
Now, if you can find them and if your faith in the light of the Emprah! is waving, maybe you can martyr yourself to ..... the Band of Brothers!
EDIT: The above may not be factually or fictionally correct, but I don't give a fuuuuuuccck! yea boi!

Let me explain...I want to "run the gauntlet" with ALL tournament armies as practice.. Sisters, despite being almost universally denounced as 'utter turd' are still appearing at tournaments and it is very important that you do not allow yourself to be thrown off by random match ups..

There are only about 5 pages in the codex, such a complex and intricate work of art it is.. so there is little difficulty in discerning the 'top' builds.. We've looked at that before (see here) and I basically just wanted to show off a cheeky conversion for the Exorcist Missile Launcher based on the forgeworld model.. as well as a few kit bashed marines (15) I have built to represent the holy tri-fecta of Dominions, Sternguard Vets/HG and Tactical Marines..

Casting Necron Scarabs

FTW's Ron does it again..

Hey,
Just a quick question really here - how does one go about doing this? For my Blog Wars 2 Necron Army I need between 12 and 27... the lower end of that I have, but the top end? Thats a lot of Scarabs..

Oh and running the Storm Lord list? between 36 and 42...maybe even 48 Turn 3..

Ebay is dead expensive now for Scarabs.. far too much to be viable.

Buying shed loads of Warriors to get them, well maybe if I didn't already have a complete Necron army...but I do so no way.

I've looked into casting resin and a few other bits and it looks like my favourite method so far found its origins on FTW - Ron once again smashing it out of the park..

Blustuff from here in the UK, mix together, press onto the piece, release after 2-3 minutes and then fill with green stuff.

Blustuff is cheap at £10 plus £1.99 delivered for 100ml.

Even has a great video for how to use it..

Green stuff I have, but I prefer Milliput as it dries harder and can be filed a bit better.. question is, do I want it harder like miliput or do I want it like Green Stuff?

I know the guys that smashed out the Necron army from scratch in a week at last weekends tournament cast their Scarabs and the little dudes turned out well...so I am definately up for it..

Any of you guys had experience with casting? How did it work out for you??

Building the Desert Lions - Part 2, Coteaz, Henchmen and Anti-Grav Transports

Zooom! (if only I was using the BA codex)   

Welcome to part two of my (very) irregular series on building my counts-as Grey Knights, the Desert Lions space marine chapter.  Part one, containing the background for the army can be found here, and a 'prequal post' containing my 'purifiers' and 'dreadknight' can be found here.

Today, I am going to show off my Commander, an as yet unnamed Techpriest who is a counts as for Coteaz.  Additionally, there are some members of the proto-scout elements of the chapter, who count as henchmen with bolters.  Finally, I'll be showing you my almost completed anti-grav rhinos and razorbacks. 

Army Showcase - Straken Hybrid for Blog Wars

Hi Everyone,

Last week I promised you all some pictures, and todays post will hopefully not disappoint on that score.  Below are photos of all the units in the army i will be taking to Blog Wars this coming weekend. 

My final list is as follows:

Company Command Squad - Colonel Straken, Medic, Bodyguard, Flappy Banner, Chimera

Veteran Squad - 3 Meltaguns, Chimera

Veteran Squad - 3 Meltaguns, Chimera

Platoon Command Squad - 4 Meltas, Chimera

Infantry Squad - Commissar (power sword), Sergeant (power sword)

Infantry Squad - Sergeant (power sword), Meltagun, Autocannon

Infantry Squad - Sergeant (power sword), Meltagun, Autocannon

Platoon Command Squad - Autocannon

Infantry Squad - Commissar (power sword), Sergeant (power sword)

Infantry Squad - Sergeant (power sword), Meltagun, Autocannon

Infantry Squad - Sergeant (power sword), Meltagun, Autocannon

Vendetta Gunship

Vendetta Gunship

Hydra Flak Tank

Hydra Flak Tank

Hydra Flak Tank

--------------

1750 points

As expected, very similar to the previous list, but the Platoon Command Squads have been streamlined.  Both now have a distinct purpose, and the army is about as well rounded as I think it can be.  It also suits my play style in that it is very adaptable and can take on most other types of list.

Hobby Saturday: Deathwing Command Squad

So since my previous post I've decided (some what predictably) that I would use the "Double Wing" list - meaning it had the least amount of hobbying to do to add the additional models required for 1750 - simply a new squad. Now this gave me a chance - two weeks to paint a single unit - I looked at this way - Belial (to the left! - he's now getting some more suitable company!) was around 4 or 5 hours of work taking away the base coats - I have a couple of days this weekend and then a entire bank holiday weekend - not to mention evenings (especially being on earlies next week I have quite a bit of time free). So? This is a chance to paint up a nice looking command squad and "extend" my focal point of the army beyond a single model. If I get time I am going to make a little display tray as well (nothing crazy, literally just a dinner tray cut down a bit to fit into the bottom of my bag, plenty of varnish and PVA glue to make sure the flock and sand doesn't go any where).

Now I've been working slowly on these guys for a little while - but by that I mean I simply remodelled two of the legs and made about 3 of the bases - so there was a lot of the models that had to be done this week. I really wish I did spend the past few weeks on them as I had plenty of leg spares and what not to faff around with reposing, but it was not to be. I did have a "vision" to to speak with the squad and I wanted to achieve it as much as possible. I wasn't far off - but I think my vision might have been a bit ambitious for my conversion skills - so in short time it wasn't bad.

I figure what I can do is a "stage by stage" WIP of these gents, so todays stage one is simply "pre-painting" - each individual and how I wanted to portray the model.

Scratchbuilt Dreadknight/Robot (1)

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates.  Today you will see why.  This post is the culmination of hours upon hours of work and even more hours of thought over the last two weeks.  My dreadknight/robot can now stand up for itself, and with the help of a small piece of masking tape, has both of its arms! This means i can show you all how its coming along.  Please bare in mind that only a few of the details and rivets are in place, and in some cases entire elements of superstructure are missing.  Armour for the groin and arms for example, are not there yet.

Dreadknight - what a pair of legs!

So yeah, yesterday I showed you guys a foot.  It belonged to my first attempt at building some large robotic legs for my Dreadknight.  In todays very brief post, i'll show you the rest of the legs. Click on the pics for high res versions.

Creating TL Flamer Turrets

 Evening guys,
Mentally busy painting up my army for X Legion on Saturday/Sunday this week, so in the meantime there is no Deployment in Action post this week, instead a quick look at the creation of a pair of Razorback turrets.

These are done in 2 ways:
1) Using Heavy Flamers from terminators or sponsons from a Baal Pred
2) Using the flamestorm cannon from LR Redeemers or Baal Preds again

Vendetta Conversion/Scratchbuild (6)

Hello everyone, and welcome, once again, to my Tuesday hobby post.   Today, I am tired.  This is because last Thursday I had a job interview.  An hour after I finished the interview i got a call.  I started yesterday.  This meant I was extremely glad I did so much painting last week, because otherwise I would never have had my army ready for the tournament this weekend!  While I am extremely grateful to have a job at last, it is going to mean much less time for 40k, so don’t be surprised to see a little less of me until things get adjusted.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings and on with today’s post.  This is the final part of my guide to converting a Vendetta Gunship.  Find the rest here.  Today I will do a quick run-through of the interior. 

Vendetta Conversion/Scratchbuild (5)

Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to the penultimate instalment of this guide to the creation of my Vendetta gunships.  Today's post will again be picture heavy, and fairly extensive, because it deals with the creation of the rotors.  These are entirely fabricated from plasticard and as such require a more detailed explanation.

Now, the design of these rotors owes much to another individual.  This guy is one of the greatest scratch builders I have yet discovered on the interweb.  His name is Klaus and he builds, sculpts and paints to an incredible standard.  In fact, his skill is matched only by his imagination.  I believe he has a few blogs, but the one I follow is called DEI GRECI, and can be found here.  My inspiration for these rotors comes from his own VTOL gunship, the Charon, which can be found here.  That link is to the completed diorama, if you search a little you will find his own rotor construction post. 

Anyway, without further ado, here is how i did it.  

Vendetta Conversion/Scratchbuild (4)

Hi everyone and welcome to the first of my regular Tuesday posts.  Most weeks these will be generally related to what I am building at the time of posting, but occasionally they might be about stuff I've built in the past and just want to show off (if I'm feeling lazy that is).

Its been a week or two since the last part of my Vendetta walkthrough, so feel free to remind yourselves how far I got last time Here. 

Imperial Robot

Hi everyone,

Just a short one from me today, to show you my latest creation (or at least the one I just finished painting at last).  This is something I literally built on a whim, an Imperial Robot.  Now, I am quite aware that robots were 'removed' from 40k at the start of 2nd edition many many years ago, but I've always liked the idea of a walking metal incarnation of the machine spirit, so I built one.  It counts as a weapons team (hence the autocannon and lasgun armament) but could easily be used as a sentinel as well.  I'm also planning on building some more and am working on some rules for units of them for Apocalypse.

Frag Cannon – Quick ‘n’ Easy

Here is the SoS guide to a very quick and easy frag cannon conversion…

If the new GW Frag Cannon is not man enough for you or you simply do not need a whole Dread kit just for the Frag Cannon, then this is for you.

I am incorporating a Frag cannon wielding Dread into my competitive mech BA army and have found it to do what I want it to each and every game so far…it has a plethora of possible targets on Turn 1 except for all reserves forces, when it is perhaps best used on the ground…but this is not a tactical discussion.

The thoughts behind its viability are found in this post.

Vendetta Conversion/Scratchbuild (3)

Hey everyone.  This is part three of a step by step guide detailing how I constructed my Vendetta Gunships.  The completed model can be seen here, and the first part of the guide is here.  Today, I'll be talking about the construction of the cockpit exterior.

 This is arguably the most complex part of the construction and this post will be pretty long, so be warned :)

Vendetta Conversion/Scratchbuild (2)

So it begins.  This is the first (or technically second, i suppose) of what may turn out to be a reasonably lengthy series of posts detailing exactly how I built my pair of Vendettas.  Yes, I have indeed virtually finished the second one.  If you have no idea what I am talking about, or just want to remind yourself of the end result, you can see the completed first one here.

I should note that I learned an awful lot when I made my first Vendetta, so the construction process was a little different this time, but its come out looking almost identical, which is gratifying. I never expect anyone to build one the same (though I'd be honoured of course, lol), but if anyone wants measurements, or more detailed instructions on how any part of the process, feel free to comment or email. 

So, onward.  Today, I'll be taking about the hull.

Hydra Conversion - with punisher cannons! (1)

Hey everyone, after a crazy holiday period at work, i have finally had time to do some modelling and subsequent blogging.  Since Venerable and I are both heading to the X-Legion 1750 point tournament in February i have realised i need to seriously get on with the building of the remaining units i need for my army.  most obviously lacking were four Hydra Flak Tanks.  while i already had two, the hulls were shared with my two Manticores meaning i couldn't use both at the same time.   this had to be sorted.

the motivation for the way I've built my Hydras is partly financial (they only cost about £28 to build, including shipping) and partly because i love the forge world punisher cannons and just wanted to use some on a tank!

today I'm going to do a step by step guide on the construction of the hydra hulls.  this hull conversion is very simple and can actually be used for a variety of converted tanks including Manticores, variant Chimeras, and maybe even Deathstrikes. 

Simple Hydra Conversion

Just a really simple, but I think effective, Hydra conversion.

I’m planning on fielding 4 -5 of these bitches and, unlike Atreides, my conversion skills are modest. Good enough, but not crazy cool like this or this…

Bearing in mind that I also need these guys built and ready by February and we see the need for simplicity.